Art Room Ideas for Wikis

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Art Ed Ideas for using wikis in the K-12 art room....

The wiki is a tool for both kids and teachers. It is at its most basic a community of ideas and tension, additions and corrections. What I put in, you may take out, and what your friend finds vital you may find inessential. The wiki, projected infinitely into the future, might work like the mathematical phenomenon in which the truth about a given question arises as an average generated by many opinions rather than a lone wise man. Over time, a well-edited or oft-edited wiki will evolve into the GROUP’s version of the truth concerning a certain subject or area of knowledge.

• Cyber Smart: This program could be a great start to integrating technology and internet usage into the art classroom. The curriculum will prepare students for their read/write web journey safely and effectively. The CyberSmart! Curriculum is non-sequential and is easily integrated, in part or in full. Organized in five units, each teaching an important facet of Internet use, it consists of 65 original standards-based lesson plans with Activity Sheets.

• The Interactive Classroom: This site gives internet tools for grades K-12. It emcompasses all disciplines, which is ideal for interdisciplinary art education.

• The Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Teaching content with new tools, enthusiasm, and the belief that teaching is a noble calling. Includes full description of wiki applicationin lesson plans.

• The Art Teacher's Guide to the Internet: Blog that includes many resources to using wikis and other technology in the art room.

• Arts Learning Interactive: Welcome fellow artists, philosophers, and teachers! The primary intent of this blog is for it become a reflective space for my learning while in graduate school. I hope that it will become a space for community learning and a site for interactive art education as well. I welcome your thoughts and insights.

• Infinite Thinking: Ideas to help students and teachers thrive in the 21st century.

Elementary School (K-5)

• How can wikis be utilized effectively in the Elementary School art classroom?

• CoolCatTeacher
• Two Ideas for Adding the wiki Model to a Elementary School Art Room

• Journal wiki:Students can write about things they have done over the past week, next they can either upload or find images on line that relate to their experiences.
• Pen Pals wiki:In this wiki students would have dialogue about their art with students from all over the world. Students anywhere can upload images of their art and receive responses from other students.

Middle School (6-8)

(the entries in the MS wiki are not from actual MS students)

Can the wiki model be applied successfully to a Middle School art classroom? What will the students write about, contribute, pay attention to, edit, leave out, overlook or stress? How can the interest of middle schoolers be captured frequently enough to keep them contributing and editing? How can the wiki be used as an active tool, without seeming like “another writing task” for kids more interested in being active than in word processing? What does a classroom wiki add to the kids’ art experience? How will an art room wiki improve the teacher’s methods? Finally, with computers infiltrating every aspect of our kids’ school and non-school lives, why should we add computer technology to the traditionally hands-on art room?

• Ideas for Adding the wiki Model to a Middle School Art Room

•  Materials wiki:As students learn and gain experience in various media and materials, they will collectively create entries recording their encounters with each material and what they think is MOST important about using the material. This theme can be extrapolated to include art room practices, trial and error, suggestions, mistakes, and journaling about when to use certain materials.
• Art Research wiki:A model for this wiki in a middle school art class could be based on student research of art forms prevalent across various cultures. Students can add to each category either examples or detailed explanations of what they feel fits certain categories of art form. The openness of the wiki will allow for a wide variety of interpretations for each category. Examples might include Narrative, Travel, Myth, Portrait, Worship, Food, Dance, Shelter, or Recreation. Students add to and edit the wiki based on works of art they believe fit into the categories. Examples might get moved from one category to another, and perhaps a final studio project could be to choose one category and create a work that fits neatly into that category.
• Artists' Statements wiki: For this section, students are encouraged to choose a famous or not so famous artist and post what he or she believes about art and their own work. Other students can read and edit these postings until ultimately the class ends up with its collective idea on what a number of artists think and feel. Another part of this wiki can be personal statements form each student, and finally, the group’s artist statement, perpetually edited until it has the approval of all. The group’s philosophy of making art as it relates to their world and the immediate art classroom.
• Other ideas that could be fleshed out:
  • A "found images" gallery
  • A creative story about one work of art, where each student contributes to the tale.
  • A digital work of art that can be downloaded, edited and uploaded.
  • Frequently asked questions about the art class or other things at the school

High School (9-12)

Ideas for Adding the wiki Model to a High School Art Room

• Weekly Podcast wiki:Students will learn how to create their own podcasts. In addition each week they will upload a new podcast onto their wikis.
• Field Trip wiki: In this wiki students will go on a field trip anywhere they want on their own time and create a wiki about the experience. They can use images, podcasts, screencasts, etc.. to enhance the experience.